Tests

I feel like I have been surrounded by tests these past few weeks.  My former students recently received bar exam results, the vast majority of whom passed this intense test and will soon be admitted into the practice of law.

On Saturday, my oldest daughter Jessica took the SAT and hopes to receive a good enough score that she won’t need to take it again her senior year after we return from Africa.  Thereafter, she hopes these test results will be strong enough to be admitted to the college of her choice.  Also on Saturday, my youngest two kids took an entrance exam for Oaks Christian School, where they hope to join Jessica when we return.  In Africa, we are anxiously waiting for Henry’s national tests results (Uganda’s SAT equivalent), hoping and praying that he scored well enough to be admitted into a really good secondary school in Kampala.

Add to this the final exams my current students begin this week and I am feeling surrounded by people whose lives and futures seem so dependent upon the results of tests.  I guess this is inevitable in an assessment-driven society where merit and achievement are used to decide who gets admitted to the exclusive clubs and professions.

I have also been reminded recently that being admitted into a family is decidedly not dependent upon merit or the results of any tests.  My new friends in Uganda (from Santa Barbara), Andy and Sara Ribbens, are desperately seeking to bring a new Ugandan orphan girl into their family who has not demonstrated any merit or passed any tests.  (We finished their appellate brief this weekend and will file it tomorrow in advance of their December 14^th hearing date).

I am quite relieved that there aren’t any merit assessments to be admitted into God’s family either.  Our acceptance of God’s grace is the only condition of our acceptance into his family, and that grace is free – no tests.